U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” but said Iran still has time to capitulate ahead of a deadline set for 8 p.m. in Washington.
The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.
Iran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war as Trump's ultimatum to make a deal ticked closer with an expanded threat of strikes against the Islamic Republic to include all power plants and bridges.
Trump said Monday he is "not at all" concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not meet his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesperson said Monday.
Here is the latest:
Iraqi authorities say a drone fired from Iran hit a civilian home, killing two people
The authorities say the explosive-laden drone hit a home in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
The drone dive-bombed and crashed into a house in the village of Zargazawi, in the province of Irbil, early Tuesday, killing a couple asleep in their bed. As the latest in a wave of Iranian bombardment of Iraqi Kurdistan, the attack underscored the rising danger to civilians in the area as the Islamic Republic retaliates against the United States and Israel by hitting their allies in neighboring countries.
The dead couple’s children, sleeping in a separate room, were unharmed. Surveying the damage to the home, Aladdin Jabbar, a cousin in the family, said the two bodies were torn beyond recognition.
“It was a huge injustice,” he said.
Regional authorities condemned the strike and urged the Iraqi government to do more to protect the Kurdish population.
Pakistan’s premier Sharif speaks to Saudi crown prince and briefs him on his peace efforts
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reaffirming Pakistan’s “unwavering solidarity” with the kingdom and condemning a strike on an oil facility in Saudi Arabia earlier in the day.
According to a government statement, Sharif praised Saudi restraint amid the current tensions and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to advancing peace efforts aimed at de-escalating the region.
It said Sharif praised the “wisdom and sagacity” of Saudi leadership in exercising restraint during the ongoing conflict.
He also briefed the crown prince on the latest developments in Pakistan’s mediation efforts to ease the Middle East crisis. It said the crown prince appreciated Pakistan’s peace efforts.
Packing up to leave Tehran, a young designer says she’s ‘terrified’
Facing heavy bombardment, many middle-class residents of Iran’s capital have been waiting out the war in the country’s coastal north.
A young designer who lives in central Tehran said her parents left at the beginning of the war but she stayed behind to take care of her cat.
Now, she says she’s “terrified” by Trump’s threats and is planning to drive north with her cat to join her family — if the U.S. really does knock out power plants after Tuesday night’s deadline.
“If there is no electricity, there is no water because the water pressure in Tehran is low and all buildings have electric water pumps. You can’t cook either. In the north, you can at least do something in nature, like the ‘Stone Age’ that he promised,” she said.
The designer spoke on condition of anonymity for her safety.
Normally a popular vacation spot, the Caspian Sea coast is carpeted in forested mountains with plentiful water — unlike other areas which have suffered years of drought.
— Amir-Hussein Radjy
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 have been killed
And more than 1 million people have been displaced, the country's health ministry said.
Among the 1,530 killed are 102 women and 130 children are among the dead, as well as 57 paramedics, according to the government count.
The number of Hezbollah militants killed is unclear.
More than 4,800 people were also wounded in the war.
Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.
This latest war was sparked after Hezbollah fired rockets towards northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran also at war with Israel and the United States.
Israel’s military says it struck eight ‘bridge segments’ in Iran
The military gave more details on the strikes following Netanyahu’s confirmation that he and Defense Minister Katz had ordered them.
In a statement, it said it struck bridges in Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan, and Qom that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.
Top Senate Democrat calls Trump ‘an extremely sick person’
Sen. Chuck Schumer responded to President Trump’s dire threat against Iran by calling on Republicans to vote against the war.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, has joined with others in his party in forcing votes on legislation that would halt Trump from ordering further attacks on Iran unless he received congressional approval. So far, though, just a few Republicans have voted to rein in Trump’s power to order the attacks.
Schumer said on social media that any Republican who declines to vote “against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence” of Trump’s actions.
Oil prices rise as US stocks dip, but markets hold mostly steady ahead of Trump’s deadline for Iran
Oil prices are rising and U.S. stocks are falling Tuesday, but the moves aren't as dramatic as the dire talk coming from both sides in the war with Iran.
President Trump threatened that a "whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," if Iran doesn't meet his latest self-imposed deadline at 8 p.m. Eastern time to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials, meanwhile, urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants Trump has threatened to bomb.
But the S&P 500 slipped just 0.5% as officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, even though it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump’s threatened attacks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 271 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower.
Netanyahu confirms that Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran
In a statement released by his office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was using them to transport materials to make weapons.
He said he approved the strikes with Defense Minister Israel Katz and said they weren’t meant to target Iranian civilians but the government.
“This is no longer the same Iran, nor is it the same Israel. We are changing the balance of power from one end to the other,” Netanyahu said.
Pakistan’s military backs mediation efforts, warns attacks on Saudi Arabia risk derailing diplomacy
Pakistan’s military on Tuesday voiced support for government efforts aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East, stressing the need for restraint and dialogue while warning that recent attacks on Saudi Arabia risk undermining ongoing diplomatic initiatives.
The remarks came during a meeting of top commanders chaired by Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to a statement from the military.
It said the military strongly condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical and industrial facilities, calling them an “unnecessary escalation” that could spoil “sincere efforts to resolve the conflict through peaceful means.”
The forum noted that Saudi Arabia’s restraint “despite grave provocations” had helped enable mediation and diplomatic options but warned that continued attacks risk damaging the “conducive environment” needed for negotiations.
US didn’t target oil infrastructure in Kharg Island strikes, US official says
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes overnight as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.
The official didn’t clarify what was specifically hit on the island.
The U.S. has already struck various targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, the airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.
— Konstantin Toropin
Iran has allowed two French former detainees to leave country, French President Emmanuel Macron says
They had been holed up in French diplomatic premises there since their release from prison.
“Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are free and on route toward French territory, after three and a half years of detention in Iran,” Macron tweeted.
The green light for them to leave Iran, long sought by France, signaled how Iran is differentiating between nations, treating some favorably and others as foes, in the context of the Iran war. Macron has distanced France from the conflict, saying his country wasn’t consulted in advance about the U.S-Israel strikes and didn’t want the war.
Macron thanked Oman for playing a mediation role.
Vance seemed to confirm reports of US strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island
Responding to a question on the reported strike, he said it is “my understanding ... that we were to strike some military targets on Kharg Island. I believe we’ve done so.”
US Vice President JD Vance says he’s ‘confident’ Iran will respond to US demands by evening deadline
“I hope they’re smart,” he said.
Speaking during a news conference in Hungary’s capital Budapest, Vance said the United States had already defeated Iran’s militarily and that Iran was now “trying to exact as much economic pain on the world as possible” by keeping the Straight of Hormuz closed.
The U.S., he said, “has the ability to extract much greater economic cost on Iran than Iran has an ability to extract cost on us or on our friends in the world.”
“We feel confident that we can get a response, whether it is positive or negative, by 8 o’clock tonight,” he said referring to the 8 p.m. ET deadline set by President Trump.
US again strikes Kharg Island, a critical oil hub for Iran
That’s according to a White House official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. hit military targets on the island, the official said Tuesday. The strikes came hours ahead of a deadline Trump set for Iran to capitulate to his demands or face a major attack. He said Tuesday morning that “’whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not make a deal.
Trump has threatened to deploy ground troops to seize critical oil infrastructure on the island, but experts warn such an operation would cost the lives of many U.S. military members and would not be a decisive move to ending the war.
The U.S. had earlier in the war struck several targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.
Earlier Tuesday, the semiofficial Mehr news agency put out a report saying there had been several explosions on Kharg Island, without elaborating.
— Seung Min Kim and Michelle L. Price
Strikes on Iran’s railroads threaten to disrupt travel out of the country
Since the war shut Iran’s air travel, trains, along with buses and rented taxis, have ferried thousands of Iranians toward the Turkish border, carrying to safety those who’ve chosen to wait out the war abroad.
Passenger trains were booked through this week, one Tehran resident told The Associated Press shortly after he crossed into Turkey at the end of March. Speaking anonymously for his security, he said he had rented a taxi to travel roughly 545 miles (880 kilometers) west to the border. He planned on returning to Iran after a few months.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel’s military warned Iranians not to use train travel “for the sake of your security.”
— Amir-Hussein Radjy
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on its consulate in Istanbul
And the foreign ministry said it appreciated the action of Turkish security forces to combat it.
“Terror will not deter us,” the ministry wrote on X.
President Trump warns a ‘whole civilization’ could die but adds Iran still has time to capitulate
The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.
Trump wrote on his social media site: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
He added: “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
But Trump’s statement nonetheless kept the possibility of an off-ramp open, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”
Missile strikes UAE telecommunications building, injuring 2
A telecommunications building in the United Arab Emirates was struck Tuesday by an Iranian ballistic missile, injuring two people, authorities said.
The missile hit an administrative building for the Thuraya Telecommunications Company in Sharjah, the medical office said.
The two Pakistani nationals injured in the strike were taken to a hospital, the office said.
Bridges struck by airstrikes in Iran
Iranian authorities said Tuesday that a series of airstrikes took out a railway bridge in Kashan, a train station in Mashhad and highway bridge near Tabriz on Tabriz-Tehran freeway.
Neither the United States nor Israel immediately claimed the attacks.
Tehran resident fears Iran will be ‘destroyed’ by US infrastructure attacks
A northern Tehran resident says friends and family are storing water and charging phones over fears the U.S. will take out Iran’s energy infrastructure.
“By attacking infrastructure, the Islamic Republic will not be destroyed, only we will be destroyed,” the resident told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.
The teacher in her 20s spoke to the AP in the weeks before the war when Iranians were reeling from the killing of thousands of anti-government protesters.
Many opponents of Iran’s government hoped a threatened U.S.-Israeli strike would quickly overthrow it, she said.
“Like the people who were desperate and were afraid of people getting killed again, I believed Trump’s words. I thought that he would kill a few leaders of the regime and the work of this regime would be finished,” she said Tuesday.
Now she fears U.S. and Israeli attacks will spread chaos: “If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said.”
Iran’s internet remains largely blocked, throttling news as panic spreads that critical infrastructure will be destroyed in the next 24 hours.
Gunmen attack building housing Israeli Consulate in Istanbul
Three assailants opened fire at police outside a building housing the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, sparking a gunfight that left one attacker dead, Turkish officials said.
The two other assailants were captured with injuries.
Two police officers sustained slight injuries in the clash, Istanbul Gov. Davut Gul told reporters. The assailants were carrying long-barreled weapons.
Interior Minister Mustafa Cifti wrote on X that the attackers had traveled to Istanbul from the neighboring city of Izmit in a rented car. One of the assailants was linked to a group he described as “exploiting religion,” without naming the organization.
The Islamic State group has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey in the past.
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A previous version of this item incorrectly reported two assailants had been killed.
Iran warns fuel will be cut off ‘for years’ if Trump carries out threat
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned Tuesday it would “deprive the U.S and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out his threat to attack power plants and bridges if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t open.
Multiple Iranian media outlets carried the statement.
It also issued a new threat to the Gulf Arab states.
“We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the warning read.
1 wounded in northern Israel rocket attack
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said a 20-year-old woman was taken to hospital with a mild head injury from shrapnel in the northern town of Nahariya.
Several cars burst into flames and buildings were damaged from a direct impact on a residential street, medics and Israel’s Fire and Rescue service said.
Rocket and drone attacks by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have set off sirens throughout Tuesday in Israeli communities close to the Lebanon border.
Container ship hit in Persian Gulf
A container ship in the Persian Gulf has been hit by a projectile that caused damage, the British military said Tuesday.
The attack happened in international waters south of Iran’s Kish Island, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
It said no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the apparent attack.
Over 20 ships have been attacked in the Mideast by Iran since the war began.
WHO suspends Gaza medical evacuations after contractor killed
The United Nations health agency has suspended evacuations from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing with Egypt after the death of one of its contractors.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post that the contractor was killed Monday in what he described as a “security incident.”
Two WHO staffers were present but were not hurt, he said without elaborating.
The incident is being investigated and the evacuations of patients and wounded people will be halted until further notice, Tedros said.
The Rafah Crossing was reopened in February after long delays in a key but mostly symbolic step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
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A previous version of this item incorrectly reported two WHO staffers were wounded.
At least 4 Italian airports impose jet fuel restrictions
At least four northern Italian airports have imposed restrictions on jet fuel due to shortages, giving priority to long-haul and medical flights.
The restrictions at Milan Linate, Bologna, Venice and Treviso airports involve supplier Air Bp Italia, the British Petroleum group’s aviation division, and will remain until at least April 9.
Priority will be given to ambulance flights, state flights and flights of more than three hours, according to an official notice.
For nonpriority flights, the airports have imposed a supply ceiling of 2,000 liters (528 gallons) per aircraft.
The Venice airport has requested pilots ensure they have enough fuel from the previous airport for the following flight.
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